So, not just to defend ourselves against government powers, but also corporate powers? Someone should update their hitlists.

Time.

Everybody will answer "greed, racism, idiocy, and bigotry" or some such rubbish, because morally and overall psychologically, that's the most comfortable answer.

The real thing is somewhat complex, and most people won't buy it.

Of course, part of it is those things, but there's way more going on here, some of it is cultural dynamics, some of it conscious intent. Those specifics are the symptoms, not the disease (though they may be diseases in their own rite).

• structural weaknesses in the US government, which was barely meant to handle the complexity millions of people, much less tens or hundreds of millions of people. I.e., bandwidth issues. As more people push their views and goals into the system, all of that needs to get governed or implemented somehow. But there is no cohesive operating principle that guides US (and even other western) culture. There is no razor - not even material necessity (staying in-budget, or managing debt effectively) is accepted. There is no means to trim implementation that all parties will be happy with, so things don't get trimmed. They get crammed in, the laws (in the sense of legal structure, not crime) are consequentially self-conflicting, improbable, or impossible to fulfill. This leads to an intrinsically unstable environment, ripe for (and rife with, by all parties) abuse. What you are seeing is, in part, the breakdown of the rule of law. This breakdown can be allayed, to some degree, with authoritarian means, but that only goes so far, even if that authority has a willingness and capability to work with the people as a whole - which none of the active authorities do, anyways, except maybe Bernie, and he's been written off by the authorities because he can't work with them well, and they also have valid concerns that must be addressed. But, in any case, whether centralized or not, this breakdown is to be expected, because the rule of law, unless supplemented with common principle, becomes.. well.. legalistic, and rife with abuse.

• governance that doesn't match underlying principles: we have no conscious least common denominator. People often point to distinct nations and say things like "see? they are doing X right!", but that nation has a cohesive culture, and isn't dealing with anywhere near the level of cultural complexity that any melting-pot nations are dealing with. What is enforceable must be agreed upon by common culture - or you must sacrifice the reality (though not necessarily the pretense) of diversity, and enforce your way. But that has obvious flaws. Instead, it is better, in my opinion, to enforce sovereignty, which is intrinsically what all the different cultures want, anyways, except that they also want to take control of everyone - which they don't get to do in a system with sovereignty as a basis, except by people ascribing to that culture. What you are seeing, is in part, a breakdown of unity due to a lack of agreement about what can be universally enforced. I.e., the system implemented does not address underlying cultural commonalities.

• the need to incorporate raw power and personal responsibility into the governing body. Bending the rules, breaking the rules with impunity, changing the rules, explicit and implicit coercion are all possible, and as such, the existing system or ruling party must be able to address these things, and incorporate them where needed, for the larger good of upholding the spirit of the law. This relates to the breakdown of the rule of law, but is more primal: you know raw power must be met with raw power. That power can be of a different form, but it must be effective.

• unconscious cognition of complex truths: or, in some senses, the "vote of no confidence". People understand, or are at least impacted, by the above issues. They have instinctive reactions against external control, and for good reason, as individual sovereignty is the source of a solid collective. But in any case, many people are aware there is a problem, don't see a solution, and are see no option but to let things burn. This may not even be a conscious choice, but simply an overall feeling - and thus, more powerful and deeply-rooted.

• genuine mockery and rejection of opposing views. Nobody gets each other, unconsciously, and everyone else treats others outside their worldview like shit, and pretends that doesn't matter. A lot of the left separated from the "Christian" right due to this - only to turn around and do the same thing to the center and right, feeling just as justified in doing so. But it creates real alienation and aggravates the already deep wounds and rifts that exist. One's personal actions, thoughts, and feelings may not seem to matter, but they resound loudly in the whole - and making personal change does, too. For those who are genuinely growing and facing their hearts and minds - my respect.

All of these contribute to Trump's rising and staying power. Of course, he's just riding a wave of unconscious thought, and if it weren't him, it'd be someone else. But people like to fixate on a face.

The actual thing we're trying to do (integrate diversity into a cohesive whole) requires genuine acceptance and support of differing world views (including non-scientific or non-Christian ones - why do I have to say this?). That means that your group, your ideology, must make room for the people who are "wrong", and wish to live their lives wrongly in abhorrent wrongness - though they never gain the right to enforce participation in their culture, above and beyond what is a natural requisite by birth, upbringing, or other dependency.

That is, each person and organization has a sovereign right to rule their own life and the lives of their dependents as they see fit, but does not have the right to force others to use their system, nor to prevent others from abandoning their system and starting their own or joining another. This integrates the very opposite of federation (well, not in the Lemmy sense, which is actually confederation, but that's a no-no-word because some people thought that confederation did give them the right to force others through slavery - but it doesn't).

But Sovereignty Culture isn't simply confederacy, like Lemmy is, but it heads towards the same things. That which can be federal is only that which we fundamentally agree on. The federal must not be used as a means of furthering ideologies, but as a means of resolving disputes between differing ideologies. It can have as much power as the people grant it, and no more - else it loses the people. By making sovereignty a keystone of culture and governance, we intrinsically grant and naturally enforce rights of others, but without placing a burden on others (except the burden of self governance, which you already have, and can't avoid).

God is the space to do whatever you damned well please. If you think that means you should fuck shit up, go right ahead and see how that goes for you.

God clearly is not just 'good'. God is just that which connects all things, and doesn't require them to be anything but what they are. God is love.

I'm glad there's someone else out there with the same concerns.

I'd be more glad if unknowns and inconsistencies were frankly acknowledged. Even though in some senses Feynman contributed to the metaphorical tech debt, one of the things I love about his lectures is his frankness in regard to the (then) current state of knowledge, and about how much was simply unknown. Much of that is still unknown, and there are major glaring inconsistencies that are handwaved into oblivion.

To be clear, this is not an "anti-science" comment, but rather a desire to see the institution of science become more consistent, and to address unknowns honestly.

Except in rare circumstances, mostly human ones, animals (including humans) don't want to die, and die anyways.

The best we can give them is a ~~fervent (typo)~~ decent life and a humane death. The meat industry is atrocious at this, and carbon dioxide is a terrible idea - particularly when nitrogen is readily available, humane, and cheap.

Good catch. Dogs. Or jumps.

That is The Good Answer.

Another, very similar way of thinking about it is that It's effectively like an apartment or office number. A post office typically ignores it, but if told to, they would forward a specific apartment number at a specific address to a new address and apartment number.

What about classic DMZ network and VPN?

The DMZ serves to your LAN only. You use the VPN to effectively become a part of your LAN.

Commit to the fact that you have to deal with her. That means sticking to what you know to be true, but understanding that she may have a poor reaction to that.

That said, you'll also have to guard against potential misunderstandings, and be calmly clear when misinterpreted. Once you can accept the emotional and practical circumstances she's putting you in, responses will come naturally.

Communism isn't a problem, just like actual christlike Christians aren't a problem.

The problem is the susceptibility to abusive power. Capitalism is bad at that, but communism is terrible at it.

I'm gonna recommend Northgard. It's a tile-based RTS with modern sprite graphics, as opposed to some games like Starcraft 2 or 0 AD (a free/libre game) that use 3d graphics. So, in some senses, it looks more indy or dated than a lot of modern offerings.

But it has really good gameplay, good base clans, good DLC, and is consistently updated. This can mean balancing/clan changes, but I must say that even when there was significant balancing action on my favorite clans, I come to accept and like the changes. Major DLC releases also come with content updates for the main game, and it really feels like Northgard is a labor of love.

It has a story mode that starts out easy-peasy and slowly ramps things up as you get better. It has multiplayer vs friends, random onliners, and/or bots of various difficulties. It has challenge modes per-clan that unlock new cosmetics.

Gameplay:

There's a lot of complexity here, but the campaign does a really good job of introducing it at a rate that's palatable.

This is a brief overview, mainly to show that, though Northgard may have simple graphics, it's really an in-depth and balanced RTS.

• Map tiles: you start with one, and acquire more.
• Seasons: Winter is a bitch. Always be extra-prepared for a bad winter.
• Random events: stuff to join in on or avoid. Rats, undead or ghost attacks, kraken, ceremonial bonfire, mine for the dwarves, exploding volcanoes that drop rock baddies that you can mine for stone
• Neutral factions: earn their favor to avoid their ire or to become their allies. Giants, kobolds, a wyvern, dwarves, myrkalfar - all have different potential benefits if you earn them.
• knowledges: learn and improve skills, gain clan specials, reduce costs - this is basically the tech tree.
• win conditions: domination, fame, economic, and even clan-specific or map-specific win conditions

Resources:

• happiness - earned through various means - nonphysical, not storeable - when positive, people work hard and new colonists come to the colony. When negative, people slack off and no new colonists arrive. Each colonist takes up happiness, except units that generate happiness, like bartenders.
• lore - earned by loremasters and various means - nonphysical, storeable - buy knowledges
• food - earned by food-producing units like farmers, fishers, hunters, healers, and idle colonists - storeable, infinite supply - all colonists need food to survive. Also used for colonizing new tiles and holding feasts (boost production and provide fame)
• wood - earned by woodcutters - storeable, infinite supply - build and repair structures. Keep people warm in winter.
• krowns - earned by sailors, trading posts, markets - storeable, infinite supply - money. Used in all kinds of areas. Used in training military units.
• stone - earned by miners - storeable, limited supply - building upgrades
• iron - earned by miners - storeable, limited supply - unit upgrades, hero spawn
• military experience: level up your military along an attack, defense, or strategic path
• fame: level up clan skills
• economic influence: it's complicated

Regardless of all of that complexity, Northgard manages to sum it all up into engaging, understandable gameplay, with clear stats on who's made the most progress on win conditions, etc, and a straightforward and manageable learning curve.

You can undergo cascades when things don't go right - a winter freezing without wood leaves everyone in poor health, often unhappy, performing at a fraction of their usual production - thus nobody's needs are met and everybody stays unhappy and underperforming. A 'simple' fix is to make everyone into regular villagers again, then farmers, woodcutters, healers, and other roles as you can afford them.

Also - Linux native.